Firefly Aerospace has done a successful landing on the month of its Blue Ghost ship 1. He touched the surface 2 March Fr. 8:34 UTC. It became a key milestone as for the company, as well as for NASA within the program of commercial exploration of the Moon.
Boarding and landing place:
- Blue Ghost 1 made a soft landing approx an hour after the start of the descent maneuver.
- After landing, the device ended up in stable vertical position.
- Landing took place in to the selected 100-meter ellipse near Mons Latreille and Mare Crisium (the north-eastern sector of the visible side of the Moon).
- This place was chosen due to the lack of magnetic anomalies and the minimum number of stones, that could interfere with the drilling of a thermal probe.
Firefly said, What has become The first commercial company, which carried out a completely successful landing on the moon.
Earlier, in February 2024 year, Intuitive Machines also planted its IM-1 machine, but he had a hard landing and overturned, although he was able to work for another week.
The course of the Blue Ghost mission 1:
- 15 January - Launch Falcon 9 together with the Japanese moon Resilience from ispace.
- 13 February - Exit to the orbit of the moon.
- 2 March - Successful planting.
Blue Ghost 1 transported 10 useful loads for NASA within the program Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) by contract cost $101,5 million.
Among scientific equipment:
- Tools for research of heat flows under the surface.
- Sensors for analysis of the composition and structure of the lunar regolith.
- Experiment for measuring the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's magnetic field.
- Radiation resistant computer and electrodynamic dust shield.
The ship will work at the place of landing to 16 March then will start sunset.
Operations after planting:
- The Firefly team already Establishes nine active useful loads.
- One is a passive laser retroreflector, settings.
- Shortly, will be deployed X-range antenna To transmit a large amount of data.
The first few days of the mission will be the most intense, until all systems go.
- Until noon at the landing place activity will slow down due to temperature limits some devices.
- Before sunset 16 March activity will increase again.
- Expected "bonus" mission - photographing lunar eclipse 14 March.
- After sunset, the ship will work on batteries To collect data on possible levitation of monthly dust.
Mission value for NASA and Firefly:
- It a big win for CLPS, which should make missions to the moon cheaper thanks to cooperation with the private sector.
- The first CLPS missions, Peregrine (Astrobotic) and IM-1 (Intuitive Machines), encountered problems, so the success of Firefly is an important confirmation of this concept.
- Firefly got a recognition of NASA for Careful in development and operations.
- Vanessa Wyche, Acting Administrator NASA, She said, What it demonstrates the force of innovation of the private sector.
Firefly Aerospace has started operating as a launch vehicle developer, But now actively expanding her flights to the moon and interplanetary missions. Now Firefly has the experience of launching devices into the orbit of the Earth and the Moon.
Source: https://spacenews.com/fireflys-blue-ghost-1-lands-on-the-moon/